Tom Turbine
Early Years Thomas Turbine was born in 1920. Tom was a sophomore at Calvin College in the late 1930s majoring in physics and suffered indignity from his peers due to his short stature. This led to him becoming the target of harassment and bullying, and referred to as "Atom Tom" by his tormentors. Due to this, he felt he was unable to impress Mary James, the girl of his dreams. One day, feeling sympathetic, he bought dinner for a vagrant who turned out to be Joe Morgan, a former boxing champ. Morgan promised Turbine that the young man could be made into a muscular man with the right training. In under one year Turbine became a massively strong fighter with unbelievable strength, and he decided to use his new ability to protect the oppressed as the “mystery man,” Atom Man. Upon Graduating from Calvin College Turbine left Clavin City, Conneticut and moved to Seabord City located within California. There Turbine earned himself a job as a Scientist at S.T.A.R Labs while continuing masquerading as Atom Man. Atom Man Begins Despite his honorable intentions, Atom Man was not initially considered a hero in Seabord City and was in fact regarded as a vigilante working outside and at times against the established legal authorities. Many of his earliest public actions inculded Tom engaging in aggressive actions against wife beaters, slum lords and various other social criminals which included corrupt politicians and law officials. As time progressed, Tom began to fight against larger more direct and obvious criminal organizations which gathered his public identity as a hero most notably against the Fiddler who had a bloodthristy nature. As Tom Turbine, he researched on his own hypothosis and tried to find a way to make people (primarly himself) stonger. He was eventually partnered with Mary James, who had left Calvin City to be near Atom Man, with whom she had a crush on, but didn't think much of the timid Tom Turbine. Mary and Tom would usually butt heads with each other on getting the most theorical results, but the two eventually became respectful of each other. Mary would eventually start to suspect that Tom and Atom Man were one and the same based on Tom's extensive wonds eerily similar to those reported on Atom Man after a big battle. Tom would continue to battle, however and encountered an ever increasing amount of advanced villains including the Puzzler, The Archer, Ultra-Human, Tinkerman, Prankster, Funnyface, and many more. Luckly for him, he was able to devlope a belt that enables him to generate energy for various uses; primarily superhuman strength and flight. During his next battle with Funnyface, the new and revamped Atom Man clashed with a duplicate of his pseudo-criminal identity of the Flying Tiger (possessing powers and weaknesses comparable to his). But while most of these villains were usually operating on scientifically-based equipment, Atom Man found his most effective villain in the form of the Wizard who exclusively used magic to completely defeat Atom Man time and time again after his magic interfered with Tom's enhanced abilities. The Wizard is also by far Atom Man's most dangerous foe even occasionally performing mass killings of Seabord City's inhabitants as part of his exploits. World War II At the start of World War II, President Roosevelt organized the "mystery men" to band together and create the Justice Society of America so they could covertly battle German dictator Adof Hilter's Nazi Empire. Mid way through the second world war President Rossevelt perssonally requested Tom on the Manhatten Project as a head scientist behind only Ablert Enstine and Howard Ocasio respectivley. After the war Tom became a founding member and later joined the All-Star Squadron where he struck up a strong friendship with fellow member Catman who was also a founding member of the JSA. Tom was present when the JSA battled Ian Karkull. During the fight, Atom was able to defeat him. In another battle alongside the All-Star Squadron, Tom Turbine fought the reluctant villain known as Cyclotron. 1950s Energy released in that battle caused Tom to develop radiation posioning by the early-1950s. But when Atom Man and Starman went to the Manhattan Project site to stop a foe, Tom, without thinking, ran through the fallout to save Starman and was caught in another explosion. However he was unaffected by this one and their foe was defeated. Surviving the blast completely unharmed, it was discovered that the extra dose of radiation gave him more superpowers. After establishing himself as one of the premiere heroes of the World, Turbine later started to focus on his personal life, advancing his own Scientific career to become the Lead Nucular Scienticst for S.T.A.R Labs. Always mindful of his dual persona, Trubine kept his ambitions in check and Tom Turbine largely remained a retiring persona. This would change in the mid 1950s when two of Atom Man's enemies would fight to see which nature was more powerful -- the advanced science of Colonel Future or the ancient mystical powers of the Wizard. After several defeats at the hands of the Atom Man, Colonel Future challenged the boasted powers of the Wizard to prove its effectiveness over his own super-science against their greatest threat, Atom Man. To prove his superior powers, the Wizard cast a spell to rid the world of Atom Man. The spell misfired and made Tom merely repress his superhero identity. Freed of his need to repress his more aggressive and assertive persona, Trubine acted out his nature but without his costume and his flight abilities. Tom continued to battle evil as an open crusading Scientist for some time even directly engaging in hand to hand battles against criminals which of course he would routinely win due to his superhuman strength as a result of the massive radiation. Also freed of his self-restrictions, Tom once again expressed his affections for Mary. Without his clumsy acts and disappearing devices, he eventually won the heart of Mary James as Tom. The two married, but Mary discovered Tom's secret while on their way to the honeymoon trying to pack what they would need. Mary would find a locked chest. Curious to see what it had inside she mannaged to open it. There she found the mask, coustme, and belt of Atom Man. Torn between her love of Tom and the world's need for its most noted hero, Mary James-Turbine tracked down the Wizard and beged him to reverse the spell. The Wizard infactuated with her beauty did as she requested and foolishly undid his spell. Resulting in his and Atom Man's final clash ending up in the favor of Tom who finally brought about the demise of the Wizard. Mary then forsoke their marriage and divorced Tom feeling it was the only thing she could do to ensure the world got the hero they deserved back. Later, George Tyler retired as the head Ceo of S.T.A.R Labs and Tom replaced him in that role and promoted Mary as Lead Nucular Scientist, though he would still particpate in many dangerous investigations as Atom Man. Career, Marriage, and Later Life By the 1960s, it was clear that Tom was not immortal and began showing his age, Turbine retired along with the rest of the JSA, after the group was urged by the public to remove their masks and work for the government. Tom then revealed himself as The Atom Man to his sweetheart Mary James (unaware of her knowlage to his secret identiy), as well as her parents, and then proposed to her. They eventually married and had a happy life together. Years later, Tom came out of retirement to rejoin the JSA. He and the rest of the JSA teamed up with the new generation of the Watchmen for the first time to battle a group known as the Crime Champions. On this adventure, Turbine met Dr. Jonathan "Jon" Osterman otherwise known as Doctor Manhattan, made up of pure Atomic enregy. Tom continued battling evil alongside the JSA and his best friend Catman, and Turbine's bravery inspired his godson Albert Rothstein, the grandson of Cyclotron (who looked up to Tom as a father figure), to use his powers for good as the superhero known as Nuklon. Atom Man also joined the JSA and other heroes in the Crisis on Earth event in which an all out war was waged that pitted Superhero against Supervillians. Tom was one of the first heroes recruited by Harbinger and the Monitor to fight back the assault by the massive Supervillian regime, Tom was pivotal among many of the battles to defeat Vandal Savage the leader of the villianous regime who was eliminating the human populated staring in eruope to remake the world in his dark image. Tom and many heroes from all over the world engaged in several battles against Vandal Savage but was not able to stop him directly despite massive losses of heroes as well as many of the villians. Tom and the others directly assaulted Savage at the "Dawn of Time" which caused the various cities among Africa to collapse into one nation that was able to withstand Savage's assault, but during the battle, Catman was severely wounded. Seeing his friend crippled greatly affected Tom, who wondered if he was getting too old for the hero game. After the war was won Tom would retire once agian. However, the JSA would call upon him again as they were drawn into Limbo to do eternal battle with the forces of evil to prevent the Armagedon of the World by an alien race, and after only a few years, Atom Man and the rest of the JSA returned to Earth and Tom was reunited with his beloved Mary. After his return he offically retired for the 4th time and promised Mary it would be his last. Tom was fired as Ceo at S.T.A.R Labs because of his three year absence so he became the head nuclear physics professor at his Alma Mater, Calvin College. Tragedy Soon after Mary became pregnant and the couple were expecting a son. A great enemy of Atom Man, and the JSA, deduced that Turbine's child would inherit his atomic based powers and could be a tool in his plot to dominate the world. When Mary gave birth, Vandal Savage stole the child and killed Mary Turbine. When Tom discovered the news of her death, he was utterly devastated and nearly insane with grief, However Tom was able to gather himself together despite his intense sense of loss and directly attacked and killed Vandal Savage. He stayed close to his friends, Catman, Jay Garrick and Alan Scott after this tragedy. Despite his reluctance to get back into crime fighting, Turbine joined his teammates in battling a scheme concocted by their old foe, Ultra-Human. He stayed with the JSA when the group reassembled although the dynamic of the group soon changed after the death of Catman due to cancer. After Catman's death Tom's look on life changed, he saw death as the only true retirement of a superhero and embraced it, Tom Turbine nearly 52 years of age longed for his date with the inventiable fate that comes to all...death. Death 4 Years later, Tom was still one of the most powerful beings ever and continued to fight against evil and joined his fellow JSA members in taking part in the event known as Zero Hour. Most of the JSA went to Seabord City where they were ambushed by the being known as Extant. Extant taunted his foes with boasts about how he could control time, and as usual, the hot-headed Tom Trubine hurled himself at Extant. They battled simmingly evenly until Extant began revealing he had been toying around with the Golden aged superhero. Tom then overpowered his belt and started to simingly pumble Extant into submission. However Tom became exgahsted and depowered, which proved to be Extant's intensions as he revealed to the JSA. Extant then expressed admeration to Tom as Turbine despreatly hurled himself at Extant. The time-controlling villain fired a blast of energy and killed Atom Man instantly. He then proceeded to eliminate the ranks of the JSA. Waverider rescued the heroes and took them and Tom's body back to Earth. Thomas Turbine was buried in the superhero cemetery known as Valhalla along side his best friend Catman-Todd Blake, and his wife Mary. Legacy To honor his god/foster father, Albert Rothstein took up a costume similar to Tom’s and adopted the name Atom Smasher to honor Atom Man's legacy. But the responsibility was too much for Albert, and he eventually went rogue. It was discovered that the hero, Damage, was Tom’s lost son, but sadly, Tom was dead by the time this was discovered and Grant grew to hate his father due to the man's absence throughout his life. Although he eventually grew to understand the crumstances and Grant doned his father's mask to cover his recently disfigured face and has joined the JSA filling his father's place as way of honnoring his descaesed father.